How to Purdy Up Your Blog For Free

I thought I would do another post on how to make your blog a lil bit purdy. When I first started blogging I was oh so jealous of those neato splendito pro bloggers. They had the good stuff, Im telling you! I searched and searched for a new face for my blog. I found a lot of cute layouts! For free!! Yup like the cutest blog on the block (dot) com. Which I used and loved. Loved until I saw it on another blog. Who did a way better job than me personalizing it! So, that's a down fall of the freebies. Its not yours and its not unique. You can try and personalize it, but still. However, they are simple. You copy and paste nothing can go wrong with them.



Anywhosit.... I knew when I came back I was gonna redo the whole enchilada. I did a new template and layout. I wanted a more "me" blog.

When I went out looking for a new template I knew I wanted ad space, 4 columns, and room on the bottom and I found Ipietoon's Not Magazine template.
*free download btw*

*click to enlarge all pictures*

Thats how it looked when I got it.  Looks nothing like my page right.  That's because I "tweaked" it. 

And heres how.


So you know there are tons of digital scrapbook programs and sites out there.  I happen to love scrapblog (dot) com.   Some stuff costs, but there is plenty of freebies.  Cute freebies.  I haven't spent a penny on my site.

They have tons of fonts heres  a few examples:

Find a theme you love and you can do everything there.


After you make these simply download to your computer and use something like photobucket to crop and resize. "Save a copy" so you can cut out each one.  Use their code to place on your blog.

For backgrounds
Simple-



Same thing download it and then upload through photobucket. Only this time you will only use the direct link.

and you put it in your edit html part where you see "body {" you would put in this under it:

background:$bgcolor;background-image:url('direct link');

        background-position: center;

        background-repeat:yes-repeat;

Its the same for your wrappers, or side columns whatever their named in your template.  


Now if you want just color behind like your posts you would do this instead:

background:#fff;

The fff after the # is the color you want.


Ok for clear like at the bottom of my blog you would do 


background-color:transparent;

Another thing is my banner, it was wider than what the template was.  So if you dont mess with it, your banner will be cut off. 

#header-wrapper{
    width: 960px;
        height:350px;
    font-size: 11px;
    margin: 0 auto 0;
    padding: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
        color:#000000;

Just look for the width and height  and change them a little.  Always preview before you save anything. 

Here some banners you could do at scrapblog:




Now I say back up your template.  You dont want to have an oopsie and hate me. 

Photobucket is a cool place cause you can crop and resize and its free.  You get a huge amount of space you can use.

To add things like your signature at the bottom of your post I used my live signature (dot) com.
 You put that code above this:


< div class =' post-footer '>


For scrolling boxes for awards, buttons etc you would put this before the button code

<table background="" border="0" width="150"><tbody> <tr><td><br /> <p><marquee direction="up" onmouseover="this.stop()" scrollamount="5" onmouseout="this.start()">BUTTONS</marquee><br /> </p></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

If you wanna customize your place and make it more you, you dont need to be a pro and you dont need to spend butt loads of money.  Just takes time.  Patience oh yes lots of that.  I screwed up mine a couple of times.  But for now Im happy with it.  Next time I want to revamp, it'll go a lot smoother.


I hope I helped.  ☺

If you have neat ideas I love to hear them.